No winners

First Read has a smart and, I think, correct take on the winners-less result of the debt-ceiling deal:

Nobody’s really a winner: Just like last year’s BP spill, this entire debt debate took a months-long psychological toll on the nation. But unlike the BP spill, it was a crisis created entirely by Washington’s political leaders. And now that it appears this crisis has been plugged — though the House and Senate still must vote on the agreement reached last night — it’s clear there were no winners, as NBC’s Tom Brokaw observed on “Meet the Press” yesterday. While Republicans got the cuts they were demanding (and at least got to delay any revenue/tax increases), the past few weeks have throw into question their ability to govern. And while President Obama gets his debt-ceiling increase and gets to avert economic disaster, Democrats are demoralized and commentators argue that the president has been diminished.

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There's no question that, had there been no deal, the Tea Party would have taken much of the immediate blame. But it's hard to see how the president could have sold his political future to a nation watching a historic default.

And the complicated political matrix of the debt debate is a reminder of why, despite the criticism he's getting from both sides for staying off the playing field on this issue, Mitt Romney has tried to avoid this particular briar patch.